Thanks for your reply Dorris.

>We have an very aniquated system called the 'Electoral College' which was created because our founding fathers did not trust the 'everyday man' to be able to make informed choices in elections, given the size of the country and lack of communication.
>The primaries are designed (and it has been awhile since I had Government classes, so I might be a little shadey here) to 'assign' delegates to the candidate chosen by majority vote (although some primaries are assigned by percentage, depending on the state). These delegates go to the party conventions and cast their votes for a particular candidate, until one candidate has the required votes to become that party's official candidate. So what we have going on now is the 'election to have a chance to be elected'. Once the party conventions are over, then the 'real' electioneering starts.
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>The actual vote for presidency is one day. Everything else before is dancing for position.
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>On election day, this is exactly what is supposed to happen

If I understand correctly, the primaries elect the leader of each party. In the election for the presidency, the citizens choose between the leaders of each party and that vote is done in one day, as it's done here in Canada.

>There is no Constitutional rule that requires any party at all. We seemed to have settled on 2 major parties, although throughout our history we've had more. And even today, there's the Democrats, the Republicans, the Libertarians, the Green Party....and proabably several more that I'm forgetting right at the moment.

Do you have currently anyone elected in the White House that's not coming from the Democrats or the Republican party?